Wattlesborough Tower is a ruined fortified 13th-century manor house or

Tower House A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation. Tower houses began to appear in the Middle Ages, especially in mountainous or limited access areas, to command and defend strategic points ...

Shropshire Shropshire (; abbreviated SalopAlso used officially as the name of the county from 1974–1980. The demonym for inhabitants of the county "Salopian" derives from this name.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West M ...

. It is situated close to the boundary with

Powys Powys ( , ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county and Preserved counties of Wales, preserved county in Wales. It borders Gwynedd, Denbighshire, and Wrexham County Borough, Wrexham to the north; the English Ceremonial counties of England, ceremo ...

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

. Wattlesborough is a former township within the present parish of

Alberbury Alberbury is a village in Shropshire, England, west of Shrewsbury on the B4393 road which travels from Ford to Lake Vyrnwy. It is on to the England-Wales border, marked by Prince's Oak. The River Severn runs just north of the village, and mo ...

. The castle is a Grade 1 listed

scheduled monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage, visu ...

. The Tower comprises a square two-storey tower above an

undercroft An undercroft is traditionally a cellar or storage room, often brick-lined and Vault (architecture), vaulted, and used for storage in buildings since medieval times. In modern usage, an undercroft is generally a ground (street-level) area whi ...

surrounded by a moated enclosure with a fishpond. The Leighton family inherited Wattlesborough in 1471 and used it as their chief residence until circa 1711. At that time an adjoining farm building was constructed and named Wattlesborough Hall.

History

The manor of Wattlesborough was held by Edric before the

Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, French people, French, Flemish people, Flemish, and Bretons, Breton troops, all led by the Du ...

and by the time of the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

in 1086 it had passed to Roger Fitz Corbet and subsequently held as one

Knight's fee In feudal Anglo-Norman England and Ireland, a knight's fee was a unit measure of land deemed sufficient to support a knight. It would not only provide sustenance for himself, his family, and servants, but also the means to furnish himself and h ...

by the successors of Roger as Lords of

Caus Caus or CAUS may refer to: * Club Atlético Unión Santiago * CAUS or Virginia Tech College of Architecture and Urban Studies * Causal case or causative case * Council of Alberta University Students * The Color Association of the United States ...

in Shropshire.

Edward Blore Edward Blore (13 September 1787 – 4 September 1879) was a 19th-century English landscape and architectural artist, architect and antiquary. Early career Blore was born in Derby, the son of the antiquarian writer Thomas Blore. Blore's backg ...

gives the succession of Wattlesborough, from the Corbets, to the Mawdy from 1382–1414, to the De Burghs from 1414–1471 and from 1471 when it passed to the Leighton family. Blore thought that the Tower had been built by Roger Corbet in 1280, but this may be a little too early. A John Leighton was MP for

in 1468,”Blore”,102. and he was followed by other family members who also served as MP for Shropshire. The Leighton family lived at Wattlesborough until 1711, when they moved to nearby Loton. From then onwards Wattlesborough became a farmhouse.

Architectural history

The castle is a Grade I listed scheduled monument. Only the roofless tower remains and its condition is officially classified as poor.

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...

are in discussions with the owners to decide the best way of preserving the building. Wattlesborough Hall - geograph

Literature

*Blore E., (1868), ''Wattlesborough Tower, Shropshire'', Archaeological Journal Vol XXV, 96–102. *Gaydon A.T. (ed.) ''A History of Shropshire.'' Vol. VIII, (Condover and Ford Hundreds).

Victoria County History The Victoria History of the Counties of England, commonly known as the Victoria County History (VCH), is an English history project which began in 1899 with the aim of creating an encyclopaedic history of each of the historic counties of Englan ...

of England, OUP, Oxford. pp196– 198. *Mercer E., ''English Architecture to 1900: The Shropshire Experience'' Logaston Press, 2003. *J Newman and N Pevsner ''The Buildings of England: Shropshire'', Yale 2006. pg. 152

Gallery

References

External links